


Kit Seeing Castle Carstairs for the First Time

by Rory_writes



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Emotional, Hurt/Comfort, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25662931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rory_writes/pseuds/Rory_writes
Summary: Kit moves into the huge house in Devon with his new family. It is huge, it is old, is it really okay for him to live there?And who the f**k is the random ghost chilling in his room?AKA: Kit meets Will and he has a message for him, and Jem gets a little sad.
Relationships: Jem Carstairs/Tessa Gray, Jem Carstairs/Tessa Gray/Will Herondale, Jem Carstairs/Will Herondale, Tessa Gray/Will Herondale
Comments: 4
Kudos: 88





	Kit Seeing Castle Carstairs for the First Time

**Author's Note:**

> Req'd by @claralightwood-gray on Tumblr

The portal whirled in all its stormy glory on the side of the building and Tessa stood beside it waiting patiently for Kit to go through. Jem had gone first through the portal to the house in Devon because Kit couldn’t visualise a place he had never been, and Tessa would follow Kit last so she could close the portal behind them. Kit swallowed heavily, knowing that if he stepped through that there was no going back. He was leaving the Blackthorns behind without saying goodbye. Leaving Ty behind without saying goodbye… the voice was stern and persistent and sometimes sounded like Livvy and other times it sounded like Dru and either way whatever the voice was telling him it was often with disappointment and with residual grief. But how could he stay there when he didn’t mean anything to them? He had to go, he told himself firmly, there was nothing left for him there. He knew he had an opportunity and the semblance of a family, or at least two people who could love him, in Devon.  
“See you on the flipside,” he said to Tessa who smiled encouragingly, and Kit emptied his mind, stepped forward and felt the maelstrom take him away with the stomach lurching feeling of being ripped apart and put back together on the other side of the world.

Kit fell out of the portal onto a well-manicured green lawn beside a winding white gravel path and, after a moment staying on his hands and knees, he let Jem haul him up to his feet. Tessa came out gracefully behind him and the portal closed with a flourish Kit associated with warlocks.

“Welcome home Kit,” Jem said, his hand resting on Kit’s shoulder. Kit looked at the scarred hand and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat before looking up at the house he would be living in. He blinked twice rapidly and then rubbed his eyes; perhaps the glamour was stronger here for some reason. Jem laughed and Tessa put her hand on his other shoulder.

“There isn’t a glamour Kit, what you see is what you get,” she said lightly. Kit felt his mouth fall open. He was standing on the edge of a shadow created by the biggest place he had ever seen. A literal castle rose up from the ground, all gold and yellow and red in the sunlight.

“Excuse me?” Kit choked out, staring up where the turrets literally hid the sun from his view.

“Welcome home,” Jem said again, still sounding amused. Kit whirled on Jem, his eyes the last thing to follow his body because he couldn’t tear them away from the huge damn castle, and gaped at him.

“You’re loaded?” He said, sounding more accusatory than he felt. Jem raised an eyebrow and glanced at Tessa for help.

“He means wealthy,” she explained and Kit nodded. Jem shrugged one shoulder carelessly and squeezed Kit’s shoulder affectionately.

“It’s a family place. A Carstairs manor out of Idris so to speak…” he explained and Kit raised an eyebrow.

“This is the size of a manor house?” He asked sceptically, remembering some of the mansions in Idris which had been more than half the size of the castle he was standing in front of.

“Mmm, no…” Jem hummed and then smiled. “It is bigger,” he confirmed and Kit swallowed the urge to say 'well, no shit Sherlock'.

“We are going to live here?” He asked instead and Jem nodded. “Christ,” he said under his breath, looking up. He was going to need to start talking like the fucking queen.

“Shall we go inside?” Tessa asked gently and Kit nodded mutely, allowing himself to get led into the massive lobby of the beautiful castle-like monstrosity he was to live in.

“Do I get to wear Gucci and get driven around in a limousine?” Kit asked as Tessa guided him up the huge winding staircase with a chandelier dripping diamond looking things above them in the high ceiling.

“We don’t need a limo when we have portals,” Jem responded from behind Kit and he laughed.

“We can go to Harrods next week if you want?” Tessa added and Kit’s eyes widened even more than they had been before. He had seen a Harrods catalogue online once and there had been a plain white tee shirt for $403, Tessa couldn’t actually be serious. He glanced at her suspiciously, but her pretty face was deadly serious and he nodded hesitantly. He would go, just to look. Kit had a vision of himself returning to the LA institute decked out head to toe in Gucci with a big fur coat on and wearing rollerblades to make an entrance, although he wasn’t sure where the rollerblade idea came from because he knew he’d just fall face first through the front door. Besides… Ty wouldn’t like him if he was wearing real fur. He would find something else as equally obnoxious to wear.

“Kit?” Jem said and Kit blinked himself back to the present and saw both Tessa and Jem looking at him expectantly.

“What? Yes, sorry…” He stammered and Tessa pushed a door open.

“This is your room,” she said and Kit realised he had been so lost in his thought he had no idea how they had gotten to this part of the castle and he was absolutely going to get lost. He peered into the room and saw it was set up much like the institute with a large four poster bed and a wardrobe, a wood trunk and a second door he assumed led into a bathroom or something like that. His bag that had been sent ahead of them was sitting on the fresh made bed. The room was also huge.

“You can do whatever you want to it, we’ll go shopping for a desk, TV, whatever else you want,” Jem said and Kit could hear how much he wanted Kit to like it here. He turned and hugged him tightly and then hugged Tessa. They both beamed at him and Tessa kissed his forehead in a ridiculously maternal manner that made Kit feel very small.

“We’ll leave you to it; if you need us then just yell out,” she said and Kit nodded, knowing full well he was going to need them to take him anywhere else that wasn’t his room.

“See you later," he told them and they closed the door behind them. Kit leaned on the wall beside the door and surveyed the room. He wasn’t really sure how he was going to fill it, but he was excited to try.

Kit felt the presence before he saw the man dressed in clothes from a bygone era standing near the massive window. He wasn’t really surprised that this huge, old building was haunted, but he was a little bit surprised that his room was.  
“Hey… this is my room,” Kit said, knowing he sounded lame. The ghost smiled and ran his hand through his black hair which Kit didn’t know ghosts could even do.

“Yes I know that, that’s why I’m here,” he said, distinctly British.

“Can’t you like… go into the light?” Kit asked straightening up off the wall and the ghost man did the same- the synchronicity of which, to be completely honest, freaked Kit out.

“I have come from ‘the light’ you speak of, although it’s not what you’re imagining. The end of my life was the darkness of night; I faded from this life into the next on one swell of music notes fading into another…” he said and Kit had the urge to ask the man if he knew he sounded pretentious. “However I do appreciate the polite way of telling me to fuck off,” he added, smirking at Kit who smiled back, albeit embarrassed.

“Thanks,” he said and the ghost floated closer to him, his blue eyes familiar although Kit couldn’t say why.

“You’re blonde too,” the ghost mused and Kit narrowed his eyes, nodding slowly.

“Yes I am…” He agreed. “Why does that matter?”

“Why are you all blonde?” He asked and then squared his shoulders and looked hard at Kit. “And why, pray tell, do you all have this bad habit of not accepting you’re a Herondale until the last minute?” He added. Kit felt a little bit taken aback and he crossed his arms defensively. Kit realised this man was talking about Jace, as well as Kit. 

“Who are you?” He asked.

“Will Herondale, you’ve heard of me no doubt?” Will said, but he wasn’t asking a question. Kit had heard of Will before, of course he had. He was somehow related to him? Or Jace was? Or they both were? He was also Tessa’s first husband.

“How come you look twenty years old? Didn’t you die at like a hundred?” Kit asked and Will shook his head, paused, and then nodded.

“I did die at an old age, a blessing I never would have thought for myself. The thing about death though, is that I can choose the form I take when I come here,” Will explained which Kit decided was a perk of dying. 

“Why are you here?” He asked, remembering the pretty blonde Jessamine who was charged with protecting the London institute.

“I wanted to tell you something,” Will said.

“Okay…?”

“I see everything that happens from what comes after death, whether you believe me or not, I see and hear it all,” Will began and Kit swallowed against his suddenly dry mouth. “I know what you’re going through. I just wanted to tell you that no matter how lost you feel right now, you’re in the right place. They will look after you and they will help you grow into a strong, brave, and good young man.” His smile was fond and a little far away. Kit felt small again, and he didn’t like it very much.

“How do you know?” He asked, hating how timid his voice sounded. How scared and emotional. Will’s eyes were wide and vulnerable and he stared at Kit with love, but Kit was surprised to see that it was love for him.

“Because that is what they did for me. They helped me become a good man,” he said, his voice soft and sincere. Kit nodded, his heart aching and racing at the same time.

“Why won’t you say their name?” Kit asked. Will, he was horrified to see, was starting to disappear.

“Tell them I miss them,” Will said, already sounding faraway, “Tess and James…” then he was gone and Kit sat down heavily on the bed. His door opened and Jem was standing there with an incredible pain behind his eyes.

“Who were you talking to?” He asked and Kit looked down at his feet for a minute and then back up at Jem.

“Will, he wanted to tell me that you guys will help me become a good man like you did for him,” he said quietly and Jem swallowed visibly. “He… he said he misses you. And Tess,” he added. Jem smiled and he nodded, but it was the nod of a boy being told his best friend’s last words. Kit stood up and walked to Jem, wrapping his arms around the man who hugged him back and ruffled his hair affectionately. Kit wasn’t sure if it was his own loss he was feeling or if it was Jem’s, but he held on tightly. Jem didn’t seem inclined to let go yet either.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @tsc-living or @andrew-is-foxy


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